One pair of birds we are seeing very regularly this year are Mr and Mrs Figbird; Mr Figbird has a lovely olive green back and a very distinctive red eye patch, as you can just see in my photo below.
There are quite content to munch out on the mulberries, then sit and chill out while I have a cuppa and enjoy their company, but the minute I grab a camera, regardless of how surreptitiously I try to do it, they suddenly go all shy on me and it's very hard to get a decent photo! You might be able glimpse Mrs Figbird amongst the foliage below:
As you can see, she's quite different-looking to her partner, but still very pretty - click on the link above to see some better pics on the Australian Birds in Backyards website.
Another bird we have been seeing a lot of is the Common Koel. Alas I have been unable to get a decent photo of either the male or the female but they are also very different in appearance - the male is jet black with a red eye and the female is a mottled brown. (By the way, don't ask me how to pronounce "koel", as I don't know; I'm going with ko-el to rhyme with Joel, as that is what one of their calls sounds like to me.)
The interesting thing about the Common Koel is that it is a member of the cuckoo family, and like other cuckoos, it lays it's egg in another bird's nest. When it hatches, the baby bird kicks the other eggs (or other baby birds) out of the nest so that it can monopolise the 'mother' for food. The Birds in Backyards website also conducts a survey on sightings of the Common Koel, which we are participating in, with the girls help of course :-)
Anyway, this morning while I was out feeding the chooks, I spotted a bird which looked similar to the female Common Koel, but slightly different, and when I went looking for more information I discovered that it is a juvenile bird - most likely it has parasitised the Figbirds we usually see here in the garden, which is sort of a pity, but I guess that's life in nature isn't it?
While we were on the Birds in Backyards website, we also signed up for their general survey on backyard birds. Lots of school holiday fun! Go check it out if you'd like some more information about your local birds, it's a real goldmine of general information and sound files for 40 common birds to help you sort out who is who... Although it took me a while longer to definitely identify that one of the very loud calls we hear often around here is actually a peacock! I'll be impressed when I track down where it lives, but I suspect it must live across the gully from here on a small acreage and the sound is echoing across to us? Odd, but in a cool way :-)
Cheers,
5 comments:
It's very odd. We had a Koel move in to the area a couple of weeks ago, and I've never heard one before in this area. You can quite often hear it's mournful little cry any time of the day and sometimes at night. Funny little bird.
Wow. I am REALLY enjoying seeing your wildlife. Your birds are SO not MY birds, so to me are VERY "exotic" and exciting. Love that crazy red eye patch. Handsome devil.
We have a big old gum tree in our back garden and I love going out at different times of the day to see who's visiting.
And thanks for the birds in backyards link, Julie.
Hi cityhippy,
We didn't see any larger birds like the Koels until our mulberry tree got big enough to attract them, so perhaps somebody else has a tree they are now eating off? The survey says that they are becoming more common but they are not sure why, hence the survey. They'd probably be interested in your sightings :-)
Hi biobabbler,
They are neat aren't they? We are really enjoying them, I'm glad we planted the mulberry now (even though it is an exotic species) although I am missing the small birds which the larger ones scare off...
Hi Bee,
No worries :-)
Cheers,
Julie
Hi Julie. Just playing about on the computor & came across your figbird photos. I live on a property on the Alice River in Qld and we have wild fig trees which attract the figbirds & oriols. Two years ago I found a baby figbird in a carpark that had fallen out of its nest. I still have him as he could never fly. Up until a few months ago I always thought he was a female as he had all the female colours but this year he has grown all the male colours except the red around the eyes which I think are on the way. The most amazing thing with this delightful bird is they are imitators and take on other bird calls so you can imagine how excited I got when he started repeating a line from one of my very talented cockatoos. I honestly thought it was one of them at first speaking a lot quieter but no mistake this little bird says "Jaffa good boy" as clear as. He repeats it over & over with the wolf whistles and other cocky whistles. My husband hears him say it all the time now to so we are thinking of getting a little tape recorder & put it by his cage to record all his chatter. Sorry I didnt mean to prattle on but I thought you might like to hear my figbird story also I have heaps of land and cant grow vegies. Everytime I try they get attacked by bugs. I try to be organic. Maybe you can give me a few hints. Thanks Katrina
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